Energy Gateway

Bringing New Transmission to the West

Attention has been focusing on our nation's electrical transmission system, especially in the West where until recently there was very little investment in new transmission infrastructure for more than 20 years. During that time, population, communities and electricity demand in the region have all grown significantly. The transmission system is reaching capacity in many places and is bottlenecked in others.

PacifiCorp is leading the way to change that. In May 2007, PacifiCorp launched the Energy Gateway Transmission Expansion – an ambitious, multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment plan that will add approximately 2,000 miles of new transmission lines across the West. Energy Gateway, and projects planned by other entities, will alleviate constraints and address current and future growth requirements.

The first major segment of Energy Gateway – Populus to Terminal – was placed into service in November 2010. The second major segment – Mona to Oquirrh – was placed into service in May 2013. In May 2015, a third segment – Sigurd to Red Butte – was placed into service. Outreach, siting and permitting processes continue for several other segments. In April 2017, PacifiCorp announced plans to construct a 140 mile sub-segment of the Gateway West project in Wyoming.

PacifiCorp has an obligation to plan for and meet the energy needs of its customers. To do so, the company prepares an Integrated Resource Plan that considers population and energy demand growth on its system and identifies resources necessary to meet its obligation to serve customers. This plan identifies a need for more transmission lines to deliver electricity to our customers either from new generating sources or through improved access to existing resources in the region. Energy Gateway meets this need by providing access to both conventional and renewable energy sources in areas with diverse resource possibilities. Some of those possibilities are shown in these regional maps of wind (PDF), solar (PDF), biomass (PDF) and geothermal (PDF) potential.

The map below shows the individual segment additions that comprise the Energy Gateway expansion. Depending on regional, third-party and local participation, the final lines may vary somewhat. PacifiCorp is taking every reasonable step to accommodate regional transmission needs and we are committed to building Energy Gateway with our primary responsibility to provide customers with safe, reliable and reasonably priced electrical service.

Links to Energy Gateway segment information can be found below. We update these pages regularly as new information becomes available.